I have a 98 AWD turbo with about 190K on it. A while ago I was driving and then all of a sudden I saw it spewing steam everywhere but it did not overheat. When I got out and looked it had split the lower radiator hose. The issue was it also was a creamy mess of oil mixed coolant.

I first thought it was a blown head gasket but upon diassembly it is not the issue. I am tyring to figure out where the oil could be coming from. Is it possible it is mixing somewhere in the turbo or somewhere else that I have not looked yet? Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.

 

All that seems to be left if it isn't a head gasket is the radiator itself where the coolent AND OIL is cooled. Seems like a leak there is mixing the two.

Jerry

 

If you haven't already done so, I would take the car to a shop that can test the exhaust gas for coolant vapor to rule out the head gasket, or even a cracked head.

Al. Wise

 

I did not even think of the radiator, I am not sure where it could mix but I will check it out.

I did not take it to a shop, I went straight for the head gasket and pulled the head. I did do a compression test before I did the owrk and it was all good, but with the mileage I thought I might be missing something. Also there was zero coolant in the oil which is usually the other way around wih a head gasket, that is why this has seemed so weird to me.

Thanks for the input, I will keep looking and see what I can find.

 

An outside chance alternative, depending on what the oil/coolant mix looks like, is a rotted out transmission fluid line in the radiator. That could account for the mix/mess, but not too likely for steam shower the engine compartment received. I'm guessing, however, that the mix somehow weakened the hose that blew (over time, of course) and the moment the hose blew the steam bath happened. So while connected problems, they probably didn't happen at the exact same time.

 

The mix was a cream color. I bet that the steam was from just a liquid landing on the hot engine compartment. When I let it sit then it looks more like oil rather than transmission fluid but at that point who knows what it supposed to look like.

I have always experienced the issue to go the other way, the coolant leaking into the oil chambers and have not seen it the other way. I am very tempted to just rebuild the engine since it is down and has high mileage and make sure that it is going to survive the furture, I really do love the style of the wagon and would like to keep it.